"As PE funds focused on consumer-centric investment, healthcare proved to be a perfect defencive play for them," the report said.

In line with the overall gloom on the economic front, deals in energy, engineering and construction (E&C) and manufacturing witnessed the largest declines. In energy and E&C, the total investments decreased to $ 478 million from $ 1.7 billion, and to $ 366 million from $ 1.09 billion respectively, it said.

For manufacturing, the deal value dropped to $ 345 million from $ 1.57 billion.

It, however, said factors like promoters getting more pragmatic, uptick in global environment and recent actions on the policy front like the relaxations in the foreign holding in some sectors, make it optimistic.

"Apart from investing activities, a number of PE firms will be focused on raising their next round of funds, and this will be an indicator of how the global investment community looks at India," it said.